The commercial director has always been The Big Kahuna in the commercial production world. Le Grand Fromage. The Big Enchilada. The 800-Pound Gorilla. And for good reason. Commercial directors are the tips of the creative spear. They are the product that is being sold by their production companies. They are where the rubber meets the road.
Until they venture into the world of television and film. Then, not so much.
A commercial director friend of mine was shooting his first feature film and arrived on the set one day to find a lovely young woman eager to talk to him about a recently added character in his shooting script. Thinking she was from the studio or the production company, he engaged her in a conversation for a polite few minutes and then went on his way. Lo and behold, when the time came to shoot the aforementioned new scene, the young woman, in wardrobe and makeup, was blocking her scene with the other cast members. The director leaned over to his AD and asked what was going on. "They cast her yesterday and flew her up last night. Didn’t anyone tell you?" was the reply. Cue the crickets.
Yes, it is a much different world than commercials.
Well guess what? The incredible gravity commercial directors bring to their craft is going to start to be applied to the longform world. The buzz word for the ’00s, "branded programming," will be the commercial director’s new best friend.
With one catch. Commercial directors that want to segue to the world of branded programming will have to partner with established producers from a variety of disciplines. Networks don’t care how many Clios you have won (or rushed the stage and grabbed). They want to know you can deliver sustainable characters and story arcs over multiple seasons. Advertisers don’t care how compelling the visuals are if you need NASA-esque bandwidth to download them. Established producers from these mediums provide the measure of confidence buyers will insist on. And these are producers with a capital "P." They are the tips of the spear. They are the dealmakers, and in this world, the deal is king. And that is why, in a humorous little twist of fate, directors will strive to become producers.
Or more succinctly, credited producers. If you look at it from an objective point of view, someone drives the creative through line of the project, chooses talent, oversees the creative staff, and makes key decisions throughout the process that effect the final product. In longform, that’s a producer. In commercials, that’s a director. In branded programming, that is whoever can equally balance character development and story arc with advertising message and marketing threads. Sound like anyone you know?
The two extremes for director/producer relationships today are (longform): "Hey Meat Puppet, I just cast the lead actress for you" and (commercial): "Yes sir, I have read your manifesto, and rest assured, no one will look you in the eye again." This will be amended to include a middle ground where the importance of the director’s role will be judged on his ability to contribute as a partner with the producer as much as on his unquestioned authority on the set.
This evolution of the commercial director’s power base finally puts him in line with the other entertainment mediums. Commercial production is the only medium (with the exception of music videos) where the word "director" appears above "producer." And for good reason. In the commercial production world, directors are where the rubber meets the road. The question is, how many directors will change lanes properly.
